Showtime
by Ari Moriarty
Summary: Yu ropes Yosuke, against his will, into filling in for the lead actor in the Yasogami High school play. While trying not to let his partner down, Yosuke finds himself unexpectedly falling for the drama club's leading lady, and enlists of the rest of the team to help him save the play and to get his happy ending. Yosuke Hanamura x Yumi Ozawa.
1. Scene One

**Author's Note: **So, here we go, trying out a new and very obscure pairing that I have never tried before!

If you read **Romance is Challenging**, then you've already seen the first chapter of this, so you can go ahead and skip to the second chapter if you prefer. Thanks so much!

**Showtime **

**Scene One**

"Yo!" called Yosuke, as he stepped into an empty classroom on the second floor of the Yasogami High practice building. "Hey, partner, I got your text. It sounded pretty important, so I came right over. What's up?"

His best friend and partner in crime, Yu Narukami, was standing over against the wall, talking in undertones with a girl that Yosuke was sure he recognized from somewhere. She was a sharp-faced girl with short dark hair and grey eyes, and she was gesturing dramatically with both hands while she talked, as though whatever it was that she and Yu were arguing about was seriously important to her. Maybe, thought Yosuke, she was part o the student council or something. Yeah, that had to be it. She looked like the sort of person who'd have a good time ordering other people around.

"Oh, great! Thanks for coming," said Yu, looking up at Yosuke. "Yosuke, this is Yumi Ozawa, the newly elected president of the Yasogami High dram a club. Yumi, this is my best friend, Yosuke Hanamura."

"Hmm," murmured Yumi. "Is he the one you were telling me about?"

Yu nodded. "Definitely. He's a great guy; I think you'll really like him."

Yumi still looked unconvinced. "But," she insisted, "Is he reliable? I need someone I can count on here. This is a serious emergency!"

Yosuke wasn't at all sure what was going on here, but judging by the urgency in both of their tones of voice told him that it wasn't anything to joke around about. "Hey, no worries," he assured Yumi, giving her his most debonair and winning smile. "If you need help in a pinch, I'm your guy. Right, Yu?"

"Right," agreed Yu. "So, you'll do it?"

"Sure." Yosuke nodded. "Um…I mean, I think I will. What…exactly am I agreeing to do?"

"It's the school play," Yumi informed him with an eloquent sigh. "We're supposed to go on stage in one week, but our leading actor just broke both his legs in an idiotic motorcycle accident…" She made a disappointed sound with her teeth. "Stupid, selfish amateur…anyway, the point is, we need someone to fill in for him at the last minute, and Yu told me that-!"

Stop." Yosuke held up a hand to try and interrupt the flow of words. "Stop right there, and don't say anything else. I don't know why you decided to drag me into this, but I am definitely not an actor. I'm not the type. I've got a terrible memory, and I slouch…anyway, I hate theater, it's boring and takes forever to get to the good stuff."

Yumi looked outraged, and opened her mouth to deliver some kind of scathing rebuttal, but Yu stepped in before she'd had the chance to say anything.

"Yosuke, look," he said. "You know I wouldn't ask you if we had anybody else to call, but we don't."

"Yeah, and how is that supposed to make me feel?" muttered Yosuke, rebelliously. "Come on, man, you can't be serious. I wasn't cut out for this sort of thing. Don't you have something heavy I can lift, or some hard intellectual problem I can work out? Seriously, anything but this artsy stuff."

"This 'artsy' stuff?" asked Yumi. "Yu, who is this guy? He's a friend of yours? Really? Somehow, I expected you to have more discerning tastes."

"Yosuke," insisted Yu, "please. You're the only person that I know I can rely on. Yumi and the rest of the cast have been working on this play for months, and they'll never live it down if they can't perform it after all of that work. Come on, here's your chance to be a hero!"

"I don't want it!" Yosuke was started to panic. This was totally not what he'd expected when he'd gotten Yu's text about a 'pressing emergency situation.' He'd figured it was something to do with shadows, or with personas. Those things he could handle. If Yu wanted some shadow beaten into a pulp, Yosuke was definitely his guy. He'd have his back, no matter what, but…this? This was way out of his league, and he'd be perfectly happy to let it stay there. He didn't know the first thing about theater, and the only play he could ever remember reading was that horrible rendition of the Three Little Pigs that his first grade teacher had insisted that they perform for the parents.

Wow, he thought. That was a long time ago. Some memories, he reflected with a shudder, just stay with you…particularly he horribly embarrassing ones.

"No," he said firmly. "I'm sorry, but no can do. Wait, shouldn't be asking Rise to do this? I mean, she's got all kinds of movie and stage experience, right? So this is really right up her alley."

Yu and Yumi exchanged a significant look.

"Well," murmured Yu, "this isn't really the right part for someone like Rise…you see, the character this guy was playing…"

"It's the male romantic lead," announced Yumi shortly. "The male romantic lead has to kiss the female romantic lead. Unless your friend Rise has a really open mind, I can only assume that she wouldn't be interested."

Yosuke didn't know about that. When he really thought about it, he had to admit that he wasn't totally sure that Rise only liked boys. He'd been almost positive that there had been something going on between Rise and Naoto at the end of last summer, something that only Kanji was totally oblivious to. No one had really had the heart to clue Kanji in to the way those two girls had started looking at each other. And it wasn't like he and Kanji were really close enough to have that kind of a talk.

"Well," he asked, "who's gonna play the female lead?"

Yumi rolled her eyes. "I am," she said, "if that makes any difference."

Yosuke gave Yu a panicked, horrified look. Yu just shrugged.

"W-well," managed Yosuke, "then, why doesn't Yu do it? Yu, you're an actor, right? You've been doing this drama club thing since last year…I bet you'd be a fantastic leading…whatever!"

"I can't," Yu informed him. "I've already got a part. I'm playing the villain."

Yosuke gave Yu a sidelong look. So Yu was going to play the bad guy? Somehow, he just didn't see it. Yu Narukami,t he poster boy for everything good and wholesome about the world the way he knew it, just didn't strike Yosuke as the obvious choice for a theatrical villain.

Then again, thought Yosuke, there was definitely something dastardly and villainous about the way that you was asking his best friend to take this horribly embarrassing one for the team.

"You're our own hope," said Yu. "There's nobody else, Yosuke. This is what partners do for each other, right? They step in to help when nobody else can pick up the slack."

"Traitor," muttered Yosuke darkly.

Yu, apparently, pretended not to hear him.


	2. Scene Two

**Scene Two**

Yosuke, Yumi, and Yu were seated around a table at the Junes food court, pouring over an impressively long script that Yumi had plunked down on the table in front of Yosuke's reluctant eyes.

"This is it," she told him. "You'll need to work on memorizing this as soon as you can, so that you can jump right in to rehearsals with the rest of us next week."

Yosuke glared at the offensive document. He hesitantly pulled it open with two fingers, as though something slimy with sharp teeth might be lurking and waiting for him just inside the first page.

"The Purloined Promise," he read. "Purloined? What does that even mean?"

"It means 'stolen,'" Yu informed him.

Yosuke tried again. "'The Stolen Promise,'" he said, translating the title into something that he understood. "Wait, seriously? That's what the play's called? That's…that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. The stolen promise? That doesn't even make sense; how do you steal something like a promise? You can't even own a promise. Its' not a thing, it's like…a…um, what's the word I'm looking for…"

"It's a concept," murmured Yu.

"Right! That's what it is!" agreed Yosuke. "Anyway, it's a stupid title."

Yumi was gritting her teeth again. "It's poetic," she said quietly. "The title is a metaphorical reference to the betrayal of the main character by the man she thinks she loves."

Yosuke thought about that for a moment. "Nope," he said finally. "Still stupid."

Yumi gave Yu a long-suffering look. "Okay," she sighed, "You don't have to like the title. It's not like I wrote it, or anything. Just…just start reading. You're going to be playing 'Romero.' See? I went ahead and highlighted all of his lines for you in yellow."

"Um, okay. You mean…right now? You want me to read this now?" asked Yosuke.

"Preferably out loud," muttered Yumi. "Please."

Yosuke sighed. He looked at Yu, hoping for some sort of reprieve, but Yu was just sitting there, watching him with that placidly expectant look on his face that Yosuke couldn't find any way to say no to. There was nothing for it.

"Okay," he mumbled, drawing in a deep, steadying breath. "Yeah, here goes." Trying not to think too hard about how ridiculous he must look right now, he cast an eye over the first few words on the page.

"Um, midnight, the enchanted garden," he read. The lights are dimmed to the point of darkness. Romero and Julia rush towards each other across a field of-!"

"No!" Yumi's hand came down hard on the table with an impatient crack, startling Yosuke into staring at her. "No, those aren't your lines. Those are just the stage directions! See? I told you, your lines are in yellow. Yellow, okay?" Her finger tapped briskly against one of the highlighted lines.

"Uh, yeah," mumbled Yosuke. "Right. I knew that, obviously. I was just, uh…seeing if you were paying attention."  
He laughed, a little nervously, but neither Yu nor Yumi joined in with him. They were both still staring at him as though they expected him to get up and do a trick. Quickly he buried his nose back in the script, and looked for the first highlighted line.

"Oh, here it is," he said. "Okay, um…ahem. Uh, 'Julia, much as the sight of your lovely face fills my heart with endless joy, I fear that we can no longer meet like this, under this traitor moon. Your father will discover us, and surely he will murder you for disobeying his will in this flagrant manner. We are doomed, Julia, my love. We are doomed.' That, it appeared, was the end of the line. Yosuke bit his lip. Who, he wondered, actually talked like that? "Endless Joy?" "Flagrant?" They had to be kidding him.

"Okay," muttered Yumi, sounding strained, as though she was having trouble keeping her temper in check. "Fine. Now, can you try reading it like you actually know what the words mean? You know, without the monotone and that blank, confused expression on your face?"

"Hey!" objected Yosuke, "I can't help it. This stuff sounds terrible, no matter how you say it. There's a reason I don't go in for theater, and poetry, and crap like that…I mean, it just never seems like real life. What real person would say stuff like this? Nobody's gonna believe it for a second."

"No, they won't," agreed Yumi, "especially if you read it like that. You have to believe in the words. If you don't believe in them, then neither will your audience."

Yosuke shook his head. "Well, then," he told her, throwing up his hands in a gesture of defeat, "I guess we're just screwed."

"Yumi," said Yu, "why don't you read it for him? Show him the way that the words are supposed to sound."

Yumi sighed in exasperation. "Sure, fine," she said. "But let's not waste too much time on this, okay? I want to try to get through the whole script before Yosuke has to go back to work."

Yu gave her an encouraging look, and Yumi pulled the script across the table in her direction, glancing only briefly over the lines before she began to read.

"Julia," she said, "much as the sight of your lovely face fills my heart with joy, I fear that we can no longer meet like this, under this traitor moon."

Something strange was happening, Yosuke realized. The moment she began reading, Yumi's entire body seemed to change shape somehow, and the tired, slouching schoolgirl that he'd been sitting across from the moment before was now, somehow, a regal and dejected creature from some far off time. It wasn't just the fact that she was sitting up straighter, or the way she arched her neck and seemed to almost lean into the lines that she was reading. It was more that, as Yumi read the words, they became something else, something real, something that could only come from the mouth of a proud and desperate lover, begging the woman he cared about not to sacrifice herself for his sake.

"Your father," she continued, "will discover us, and surely he will murder you for disobeying his will in this flagrant manner. We are doomed, Julia, my love. We are doomed." There was a new light in Yumi's eyes as she said the words, and, with some surprise, Yosuke realized that for the last second or two, she hadn't been reading them off the page at all. Instead, she'd been saying them to him, watching him out of the sad eyes of Romero, rather than the exasperated ones that she'd worn only moments before as the world-weary Yumi Ozawa.

There were several moments of silence after Yumi finished reading. Eventually, she pushed the script back over to Yosuke. "There," she said. "Not my best reading ever, but at least you get the sense of what I'm looking for. I need you to read the words as though you mean them."

"Oh," was all Yosuke managed to say. "Um…right." Silently, he wondered to himself how the hell he was ever supposed to follow that up. He wasn't cut out for this; and honestly, he didn't even want to be here. Yumi, on the other hand, was a pro. She made the words live and breathe. There was no way that Yosuke was going to be able to stand up to that, even if he could make himself pretend to be a lovesick loony for the sake of this play.

"Oh, my line's next," said Yu, breaking into Yosuke's inner monologue. "Here, my character's called 'Eduardo.'"

Yosuke looked back down at the script. "It says 'Mwahahaha,'" he told Yu. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's laughter," remarked Yumi. "Yu's supposed to let out a really terrifying, evil laugh, to let the two lovers know that he's been listening in to their conversation."

Yosuke raised an eyebrow at Yu. "Oh yeah?" he said. "Okay, let's hear it. I wanna hear your best evil laugh. Go on, partner, show me how freaky and evil you can be."

Yu frowned for a moment, then nodded once, opened his mouth, and laughed.

Yosuke winced. Across the table, Yumi seemed to be trying to keep a straight face, but it wasn't working. Yosuke couldn't really blame her. Loyalty was one thing, but a real friend knew when to tell the whole truth.

"Man," he informed Yu, "look, I don't mean to bring you down, or anything, but…that was probably the worst evil laugh that I have ever heard. Seriously? That's the best you can do?"

Yu glared at him. "Shut up," he muttered. "Like you're one to talk."


	3. Scene Three

**Scene Three**

A few days later, the entire investigation team was seated on the floor of the Dojima residence, all equipped with textbooks, notebooks, pencils, and despair. Exams were coming up, and not a single person in the room looked too happy about it. Well, no, Yosuke corrected himself. Rise, at least, looked like she was in a good mood. She had wanted private tutoring sessions with Yu, ever since he'd formally transferred back to Yasogami High only a few months before. He'd refused her, but even if she couldn't have that, at least she got to spend time with him under the pretext of studying for midterms.

"Um…" began Chie hesitantly. "Okay, so…I guess we could start with English. That's as good a subject as any, right?"

"'Good' isn't the word I'd use," mumbled Kanji. "Come on, let's start with something I don't suck at. Uh…"

"Wow," commented Yosuke. "There's something you don't suck at? I'd love to see what that is. You know that lunch isn't a school subject, right?"

Kanji glared at him.

"Hey, Yosuke," interrupted Rise, her eyes twinkling in that friendly, mischievous way that they did when she was planning to ruin someone's day. "Senpai says that you're going to be playing the lead in the school play. Is that true?"

Suddenly, all eyes in the room were focused on Yosuke's face. He squired uncomfortably.

"Well, yeah, I guess," he said, trying to make it sound like that was no big deal. "Yu needed someone to fill in for one of his friends who got hurt, so…I mean, I figured I'd help him out. After all, when you're in a bind, I'm the guy to call, so…"

"Wow." Chie exchanged a significant look with Yukiko. "Seriously? Why didn't you tell us you had a thing for acting?"

"Hey, I know!" announced Rise. "Instead of studying, let's help Yosuke work on his lines! That'd be a lot more interesting than stupid English or boring Geography, right?"

Everyone was nodding and murmuring in assent. Yosuke tried not to panic. There was no way, he knew, that he could let them see that horrible script he was still carrying around in his backpack. He'd spent most of the past few days trying not to think about the fact that eventually, whether he liked it or not, people would actually be watching him perform this crap on stage. Maybe if he just gave his friends the wrong date for the show, they wouldn't show up on time, and he'd be able to get out of embarrassing himself in front of them. Kanji, at least, would never let him live it down…and, come to think of it, neither would Teddie or Chie. He grimaced.

"Yosuke," noted Teddie, "you look all red. What's wrong?"

"Ooh, there's some virus going around the school right now," remarked Yukiko."Yosuke, you might be getting sick…you should get some rest tonight."

Yosuke looked into Yukiko's innocent, guileless eyes, and silently thanked her for being either a bit too sweet, or a bit too dense to notice how embarrassed this situation as making him.

Unfortunately, Chie wasn't willing to let go so easily. "Wait," she said. "Yosuke, isn't Yumi Ozawa in charge of the drama club at school?"

"Sure," muttered Yosuke. "Why?"

Now it was Rise's turn to get interested. "Oh, because Yumi's really good!" she informed him. "I heard that she even got an offer from an agent last year. They wanted her to come out and act in a big production that was going on in the city. Some celebrity was starring in it, and I guess they needed a younger looking supporting cast." She shrugged. "Anyway, she said no. Apparently she decided she didn't want to act anymore, and that she was going to start focusing on other things, like…maybe her schoolwork, or something."

"But, if that's the case," interjected Yukiko, "then why do you think she came back to the drama club? After all, she's acting now, isn't she?"

Again, every pair of eyes in the room focused on a single target. Yu, now the object of everyone's curious stares, shot Yosuke an exasperated look.

"Yeah," agreed Chie. "It was probably his fault. After all, this wouldn't be the first time that a girl changed her mind just to spend some time with our leader."

"That's…that's not true. It's not like that," mumbled Yu.

Rise made a face. "Well, if that's what she's after, then she has the wrong idea. I don't think Yumi's really senpai's type. Right, senpai?"

Again, Yu looked at Yosuke, with the beginnings of panic written all over his face. Yosuke sighed.

"Hey, guys," he said. "Actually, uh, I really could use some help with my lines. They aren't so easy to learn, and…Rise, at least you have some experience with stuff like this."

As everyone gathered around him, he reluctantly pulled out the script and opened it to page one. Yu mouthed the words "Thank you" at him, and Yosuke just nodded. Again, he thought, here he was, taking one for the team.

Yu was going to owe him for this. Actually, Yu was going to owe him big time for this whole drama club fiasco, and Yosuke was going to make sure that he paid dearly for it.

So, he thought, as Rise, Chie, and Yukiko pretended not to argue over who was going to get to read for the part of Julia, Yumi had been going to quit the drama club. Honestly, he wasn't sure why. Okay, sure, Chie had said that she'd probably wanted to focus on studying, or something like that, but…somehow, even if Yumi did use a lot of big important words, she didn't seem the type to be a bookworm, and to hole herself up away from her talents just to make sure she got straight As. When she'd been reading those lines, stupid as the lines were, there'd been something passionate about her speech that made Yosuke realize why some people really did want to spend all of their time in the theater. She got into it in the same way that he and Yu got into fighting off the shadows, and using their personas. It was her purpose, her passion, and he knew what that felt like, even if he couldn't relate to having any talent for or real interest in acting.

So, he reasoned, if she felt that strongly about it, then why had she been willing to give it up? Then again, maybe Chie had that all wrong. After all, rumors were just rumors, and half the time there wasn't any truth in them at all.

Eventually, the team decided to take a break for lunch. Teddie and Kanji went out to pick up some stuff from Aiya for everyone, and Yosuke took the opportunity to pull Yu aside.

"You really saved me back there," Yu told him. "Thanks."

"Yeah, you owe me one," Yosuke reminded him. "You owe me…so much more than just one. Anyway, forget it, we'll deal with that later. I want to ask you something."

"Sure," said Yu. "Shoot."

Yosuke nodded. "Is it true," he asked, "what Chie said about Yumi? Did she come back to the drama club just because she wanted to hang out with you?"

He wasn't entirely sure why, but he was a little bit relieved when Yu vigorously shook his head. "Nah," insisted Yu, "it wasn't me. Look, there was a lot of personal stuff going on in Yumi's home life, and I can't really talk about that, but, in the end, she decided that she was just using drama club as a way out."

"Oh yeah." Yosuke could relate to that. After all, even he had to admit that he'd spent the longest time looking at the serial murders as a way to take his mind off being bored in Inaba, or missing Saki.

"But this year," continued Yu, "when the drama club president stepped down, there wasn't anybody to fill in. Everyone came crying to Yumi, begging her to come back so that they wouldn't have to dissolve the club, and she's got a bigger heart than she pretends to, sometimes. So, she came back."

"She seems pretty gung-ho about this play," remarked Yosuke, "considering she didn't even want to be a part of the club in the first place."

Yu shrugged. "That's just Yumi," he said. "She gets into things. Once she's put her mind to something, she gets it done. It's just her way. Listen, Yosuke, I'm really sorry about dragging you into all this. I just didn't know who else to call. If it's too much, or if you need to back out, then I totally-!"

"Don't worry about it." Yosuke sighed. "I'm pretty sure we're in this together, now, for better or for worse, so…let's just get it over with."

Yu looked relieved, and Yosuke wondered why he hadn't taken his chance to walk away from this mess while he still could. After all, Yu had just said that he'd be willing to let him out of it. He probably should have just agreed to that, before Yu changed his mind, but now…

"Hey, Senpai!" called Rise. "Come here for a minute. Let's read Julia and Romero together, okay? I want to hear how it sounds when you tell me you love me."


	4. Scene Four

**Author's Note: **This is fun! Just out of curiosity, who recognizes the character I've snuck in here?

**Scene Four**

The days flew by. Before Yosuke knew it, he found himself lined up with a bunch of other kids he didn't recognize, waiting to be let into the drama club practice room for what Yu had mysteriously described to him as a "wardrobe fitting." Yosuke had known in the back of his mind all along that he'd have to wear a costume to perform in this thing. Of course, that made sense. Still, he hadn't really given it a ton of complex thought, and now his mind was racing in a panic, hoping beyond all reasonably hope that whatever they put him in didn't make him look too much like an idiotic pansy. Okay, he told himself; he was probably going to be fine. After all, he was playing a guy. It could have been worse. There were other people in the show who were unlucky enough to be playing a lion, a bear…one poor guy was even playing a wall. Yosuke didn't get that. Why did they need an actor to play a wall? Couldn't they just use a wall?  
"It's artistic," Yumi had snapped at him, when he'd asked her what the hell the point of that all was. That seemed to be her stock answer for most things, Yosuke decided, whenever she was really trying to tell him that a normal guy like him just wouldn't understand.

"Hey Yosuke!" Yu stuck his head out through the doorway to the practice room. "They want you in here. They say they have some things for you to try on."

The moment of truth had come. Yosuke glanced helplessly around at all the other actors, who were now glaring at him as though going in for a costume fitting was some incredibly privilege that they were all jealous of him for obtaining first. He wanted to tell them that they could have it, really, but apparently, Yu and the others were waiting. He summoned up his courage, and went in.

There were a lot more people in the room already than he'd expected. Yu and some girl student that Yosuke didn't recognize were both in there, and Yu was in the process of having something black draped over his shoulders. Seriously, thought Yosuke. Was that a cape? Were they really going to put him in a cape? He tried to shoot Yu a sympathetic look, but for some reason Yu didn't look as though he needed the sympathy. He didn't look embarrassed at all. Oh man, partner, thought Yosuke. What is this club turning you into?

At the front of the room stood a slightly older man, who looked as though he might be just out of college. He didn't, thought Yosuke, look Japanese, and he definitely wasn't from the Inaba area, or Yosuke would have seen him around before. He had a weird sort of blond bowl cut, and the look on his face was way too enthusiastic to make Yosuke feel comfortable.

"Ah, subarashii! Wonderful!" announced the blond man. "I can see that eet iz time to create a work of art for zee leading actor!"

It took Yosuke a few minutes to put together just exactly what he'd said. "Uh…yeah, that's me. I'm, um, Yosuke Hanamura."

"Kanji-chan!" announced the blond man. "If you please, prepare zee measuring tape!"

Yosuke blinked in surprise, then turned to see none other than Kanji standing just behind him, wielding a long piece of measuring tape which he was getting ready to hold up to Yosuke's left arm.

"Whoa, Kanji?" asked Yosuke. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Uh…costuming, obviously," muttered Kanji. "Why, what's it look like?"

As Yosuke stood there, trying not to flinch away, Kanji carefully measured the lengths of both of his arms, then both of his legs. He was just wrapping the tape around Yosuke's waist when Yosuke decided that he'd had enough of this.

"What the hell?" he demanded. "Dude, way too close. Come on, I thought you said that you were over all of that stuff."

Kanji turned bright red, which either meant that he was embarrassed, seriously pissed off, or a combination of the two. "What are you talking about?" he asked. "It's not like that! I gotta take your measurements, is all. Otherwise we can't figure out how to get your fat ass into some clothes, okay?"

"My fat ass?" asked Yosuke. "Hey, what are you-?"

With Yosuke distracted by the insult, Kanji took the opportunity to finish getting the waist measurements. "Here," he muttered, writing down a few notes and then passing them over to the blond man. "Guess that's the best we're gonna get out of this guy."

"Ah, Arigatou, Kan-chan. Thank you!" announced the blond man. He cast an eye over Kanji's notes for a moment, then nodded to himself, turned around, and whipped out something white and silky that he'd apparently been concealing behind his back this whole time. "Yes, I think zis will do very nicely! Here, if you please, let us try zis on!"

Yosuke stared at it. "It's frilly," he said.

The blond man blinked at him. "But of course eet iz 'frilly'," he said. "Eet iz the most fabulous and exquisite gentleman's garment of zee Renaissance!"

"The what?" asked Yosuke. "Anyway, no. Sometimes, a guy's gotta put his foot down. I'm not wearing that."

The blond man exchanged a look with Kanji, who just shrugged.

"Yeah, I told you," said Kanji. "I knew he wasn't gonna go for it. You want me to get Yumi-san?"

"Hmm," murmured the blond man. "Yes, zat may be best."

Dutifully, Kanji left the room, and Yosuke heard a murmur of voices outside that may or may not have been Kanji trying to make his way through the throng of impatient actors. After a few moments, Yosuke could hear another voice as well, and it was unmistakably Yumi's voice. She was obviously irritated, and was speaking perhaps more loudly than she normally would, but Yosuke was surprised at how clear her tone was, even when she was having trouble keeping herself in check. She really did have an easy voice to listen to. That probably, he decided, came from all of her theater training. After all, actors had to know how to talk for a really long time, without letting their audience get bored, right?

The murmur of voices subsided, and then suddenly Yumi was sweeping into the room, glaring at Yosuke out of balefully determined eyes.

"Excuse me?" she asked him. "Did I hear that you're refusing to work with our costumer? It wasn't easy to get him here, you know. This is a special privilege, and I expect you to treat it that way!"

Yosuke wasn't really listening. He was vaguely aware that he was being reprimanded, but there was something much more interesting going on right now, and that something was Yumi. She'd apparently been costumed already, maybe in a different room with the rest of the girls, because she was wearing some kind of deep red floor length gown that somehow managed to cover every inch of her while emphasizing all those little curves on her body that Yosuke hadn't even noticed before. A dress, he thought, shouldn't be able to hide a girl and show her off at the same time. If this same costumer had made that dress, maybe he wasn't' so bad at what he did after all.

"Are you listening to me?" demanded Yumi. "I said, this is a special privilege!

Yosuke blinked. "Uh, yeah," he mumbled. "It sure is."

Yumi looked surprised. "What?" she asked.

Yosuke, realizing that he was staring at her, immediately looked away, just in time to see Yu try to dramatically sweep the big black cape thing across his shoulders. The cape was apparently too long, because he fumbled it, accidentally stepped on the back of it, and ended up crashing to the ground, partially tangled in black fabric.

Yumi and Yosuke exchanged a look.

"Oh jeez," muttered Yosuke, burying his face in his hands as Yumi hurried over to help Yu sort himself out again.


	5. Scene Five

**Scene Five**

Yosuke threw up his hands in defeat. "Forget it," he announced to the world at large. "I can't do this."

He and Yumi were standing in the middle of the empty classroom, long after the bell had wrung to signal the end of the day. They'd been rehearsing diligently for hours. Well, no. Actually, it was more like Yumi had been glaring icily into Yosuke's terror-stricken eyes while he tried and failed to stammer through his clumsily written lines.

"Yes," Yumi informed him, with an exasperated sigh. "You can. You can, because you have to."

"I can't," insisted Yosuke doggedly, "whether I have to or not. If I get up there and try to do this on stage, it's gonna suck, everyone is going to laugh their asses off, and Yu is going to be embarrassed as hell. When I say I can't do this, I mean that I can't-!"

"Have you ever been in love?" asked Yumi abruptly.

The question caught Yosuke so off guard that he just stared at her for a moment, with his mouth hanging clumsily open . "Wh-what?" he asked eventually.

Patiently, Yum repeated herself. "Have you ever been in love?"

Yosuke didn't know what to say. He wasn't even sure he knew the answer to her question. Where the hell was this going? One minute they were running lines and failing at theater, and the next moment she wanted to know the intimate details of his personal life? What was that all about? Yosuke was feeling more and more uncomfortable. Was it possible, he asked himself, that this was some strange "artistic" form of a pick-up attempt? If she was hitting on him, then…well, then he really didn't know how to feel. She certainly hadn't gotten off to a good start at lightening or relaxing the mood.

"Why?" he managed finally. "Why would you ask that?"

Yumi sighed. Dropping her script on to a chair, she took a seat in the one next to it, and Yosuke watched the thoughtful frown make its way across her face.

"Romero and Julia," she began, "are in love. They're deeply in love, so in love that they'd risk death and danger just to be close to each other. Love is the only thing that matters to them, and they're willing to do the impossible for it. What I want to know, Yosuke, is if you have ever been in love, because…if you haven't, then maybe there really is no way for you to understand this role. Just saying the words isn't going to be enough for you, is it? You're going to have to feel it. Feeling it will start to make it real, so…I want to know." She shrugged, and then looked up at him, waiting expectantly for whatever answer.

"I don't know," he told her blankly. He was starting to feel a little queasy. She was just staring at him, asking him to bare his soul, and he didn't even really know her. This was Yu's kind of thing. Yu was the sort of guy who could get on intimate terms with people after only a few short meetings. Yosuke didn't work like that. He liked to stay away from the deep stuff, because the deep stuff could hurt, and if it hurt, then he knew he was probably doing it wrong.

"I've been in love," Yumi told him.

"Hey, I don't need to-!" began Yosuke, but Yumi wasn't listening.

"There was this guy in drama club last year," she went on, heedless of Yosuke's complete lack of desire for her confidences. "I didn't really like him at first. I thought he was kind of lazy, and sometimes he didn't even bother to show up. Then…I guess it was when he and I started talking, really talking for the first time. My mother started spending a lot of time in the hospital, and I'd go there a lot to visit her or help her out. This guy, he was really kind to me during that time. He was the only one who managed to make me feel better about any of it. In the end, I started going to drama club just because I wanted to see him. His face was what made me want to work harder. Sometimes, the idea of seeing him at club was what it took to get me out of bed in the morning." She paused for a moment, nodded, then added, "And that's love, I think. That's what I think about when I'm being Julia. I think about what I would have done for him."

The air in the room was very still. Yosuke realized that he had been holding his breath, and he let it out in one big gust that suddenly broke into the silence into a gust of awkward air that sounded way too loud.

"So," repeated Yumi, for the third time. "I want to know. Have you ever been in love?

Yosuke wanted to say no. He didn't want any part of this little heart to heart about things that he'd spent a whole year trying to bury away under heaps and heaps of being as normal as he could. Unfortunately, something about what Yumi had said was striking a familiar chord with him, and now so many of the old feelings were flooding back to the forefront of his brain. There had been a person once, a person who had made him want to get up in the morning, and whose face on his mind had made him smile on his way to a dreary, lame-ass job in a tiny hick town like Inaba. Sure, maybe it hadn't been love. Maybe she'd never even paid much attention to him, and maybe it hadn't lasted long enough to be the kind of thing that Yumi was trying to get him to talk about, but…

But it had meant something to him, Yosuke realized. It had meant something that he would have risked a lot of things not to have to give up. He'd risked plenty to avenge Saki's death, even after it had been too late to get to know her better. That counted for something, somehow.

"Yeah," muttered Yosuke. "Yeah, maybe I have."

Yumi didn't ask about Saki. She didn't seem to care. Instead, she just nodded again, crossed her arms over her chest, and glanced pointedly in the script that Yosuke was still holding.

"Okay," she said. "So, read it again. This time, think of her."

Yosuke took a deep breath. It was too late to get Saki's face out of his head.

"Oh, Romero," murmured Yumi, not even bothering to look at her own copy. She must have memorized the lines already, thought Yosuke, using some sort of weird, kooky actor-tricks. "Tell me how you love me," she continued, looking straight into Yosuke's eyes.

"With sighs and tears," he muttered, feeling the stilted words struggling to force their way off of his tongue. "With fire and ice. With pain and pleasure, and in, uh…"

"Go on," murmured Yumi.

"Uh…with pain and pleasure, and with joy in times of woe, I love you," he finished.

As he said the words, something strange was happening behind his eyes. The face of Saki Konishi, complete with that slightly wry and tired smile of hers was slowly beginning to warp and re-form into the image of Yumi, with an exasperated sparkle in her eyes. Maybe it was because she was the one speaking to him, or because he was trying so hard to fit himself into the role, but after a few moments of stumbling through the first words to Saki, Yosuke realized that he was talking to Yumi…or rather, talking to Julia, the person that Yumi had forced him to make come alive.

"Was that any better?" he asked, after they'd worked their way through the rest of the dialogue in the scene.

For the first time that he could remember, Yumi gave him a really pretty smile. When she wasn't looking down her nose at him, thought Yosuke, her face wasn't half-bad.

"Yes," she said. "Yes, that was much, much better. Okay, so let's try it again."


	6. Scene Six

**Scene Six**

After that day in the abandoned classroom, something snapped in Yosuke's mind. For the first time, he felt himself actually wanting to practice his lines, and he took every opportunity to pull his script out of his bag, and to spend a few minutes going and over and over the ridiculous protestations of love in his head. Even when the other Junes employees began to give him strange looks, concerned about the way he kept mumbling to himself under his breath, Yosuke decided not to care. He had a job to do, and there were people counting on him. Yu was counting on him, of course, and that had been the case since the start of this mess. Now, though, Yosuke had something else on his mind. He kept hearing Yumi's voice in his head, the way she let each stupid word of Julia's convoluted lines roll off of her tongue and take some sort of weird and "artistically" realistic shape in the air as she worked her way through the scenes they had together. She was counting on him, too, and Yosuke realized that he couldn't stand the idea of letting her down.

He was currently running through the love scene for the fourth time that day, while standing in the Junes food court, supervising some of the newer underclassmen whom his dad had recently hired to work the after-school shifts. Although originally Yosuke had worried that those kids were going to end up taking all of his hours, and subsequently all of his money, now it had ended up suiting him just fine. The more hours he didn't have to work, the more time he got to spend with his script, and the more confident he became that maybe he wasn't going to screw this play halfway to hell when it came time for him to get on stage with the others. As Yosuke mouthedthe words to himself over and over again, he caught sight of the familiar figures of Yukiko and Chie, pouring over the produce shelves with a pair of unconvinced and slightly worried looks on their faces. Idly, Yosuke wondered what poor sap they'd agreed to cook for that night, and then entertained a moment of panic as he hoped beyond the shadow of all hope that the poor sap in question wasn't him.

"Hey, Yosuke!" called Chie, waving and hurrying over to him around the newly fledged workers. "Wow, I haven't seen you in days! You're really busy, now, huh? Yu says you're working really hard on that school play."

"I'm really looking forward to seeing it," murmured Yukiko encouragingly. "I've already given my mother and father the dates and times, and I mentioned it to the waitresses at the inn, as well."

"Oh, yeah!" agreed Chie. "I was talking to Kou-kun the other day! You know, Kou Ichijo, from the basketball team? He said that he'll bring Daisuke-kun, and that Daisuke'll probably make the soccer team come along, too! You're really pretty popular, you know? Lots of people want to come and see you act!"

Yosuke had the sneaking suspicion that lots of people were more likely to be interested in seeing him screw up, and that they were all just hoping that it might end up being one tragic comedy routine from start to finish. Chie and Yukiko looked so genuinely and innocently enthusiastic, though, that he couldn't bring himself to shatter the bubble of good news that they were sure they'd brought him.

"Huh," muttered Chie, looking thoughtful. "Hey, do you think Yumi Ozawa will bring a lot of friends, too? I mean, she's the female star, right? So lots of people will want to come and see her, too! Plus, she's got a reputation for being really good!"

This time, however, Yukiko didn't look entirely convinced. "I don't know…" she mused. "I never see Yumi-san hanging out with any of the other girls at school."

"Ohhh." Chie frowned. "Well, I guess that just means that Yosuke will have to be even more popular, to make sure that we get a full house!" Chie, as usual, was totally fired up. Yosuke couldn't decide if that was something he liked about her, or something he dreaded. It was probably, he reflected, a combination of the two.

Suddenly, Yosuke remembered the conversation that Yukiko, Chie, and Rise had been having about Yumi the last time they'd all gotten together to study for midterms. "Chie," he began, wary of piquing her interest too much, "Uh, were you the one that said you thought that Yumi was into Yu?"

Apparently, Yosuke hadn't been careful enough. Chie was immediately on full alert. "Huh? Why do you want to know?" she asked.

"Oh, uh, it's nothing," insisted Yosuke hurriedly. "It's just, he's not into her, you know? Don't want my best friend being followed around by some girl he doesn't even like. That's just hard…I mean, how do you even get out of that situation?"

Yukiko and Chie exchanged an exasperated look. "Wow, Yosuke," muttered Chie. "That's pretty harsh…don't you even care how Yumi feels?"

Yosuke was beginning to worry that he might care a hell of a lot about how Yumi felt, but he wasn't about to say that out loud, especially to Chie. "Come on," he insisted, "Cut me some slack, I'm just looking out for my partner. You'd do the same thing for each other, right?"

Suddenly, Yukiko smiled. "Actually, Chie, you do that sort of thing all the time," she remarked. "Like the other day, when that boy came up to me in the hallway, right out of the blue, and started asking me for my phone number…"

Chie nodded once. "Right," she said. "Okay, I guess I see your point."

"So?" Yosuke tried not to sound too impatient. "Answer my question already."

"Jeez, fine…" Chie looked a little annoyed. "I mean, hey, how am I supposed to know if she likes him or not? It's just a rumor that's been going around. It's not like I've gone up and asked her, or anything. I barely even know her!"

"Oh," interjected Yukiko, "but she definitely had a crush on him last year. We used to see her all the time, remember, hanging around outside his classroom? She even asked him to walk her home a few times, and once we caught her hanging out at the food court all day…I just bet she was hoping that Yu would show up!"

"Yeah," murmured Chie thoughtfully. "That's true…and that's really unlike her. Yumi never goes to Junes. I heard that she thinks it's 'too mainstream,' or something. Yeah, I think Yukiko's right, I thinks he was really into him. But that was almost a year ago. Maybe she's lost interest by now."

Yosuke wasn't so sure. The more he listened to what Chie and Yukiko were saying, the more he thought back to the way that Yumi had described the guy who'd she'd been in love with the year before. He'd made her want to get up in the morning, she'd said, and he'd made her day worth getting through. Had she been talking about Yu, all that time?

Yosuke was surprised to realize how much that annoyed him, in a weird way. What was that all about? Was it jealousy, on his part, that someone else was trying to get as close to his partner as he'd always been? That thought made him feel kind of creepy inside. That was no way, he knew, for him to be thinking about another guy. Still, the idea of Yumi being in love with Yu bothered him. Was Yu the reason that playing the part of Julia was so easy for her?

For an unwelcome, fleeting moment, Yosuke wished that there was someone out there who felt that way about him.

"Earth to Yosuke!" called Chie, breaking into his surprising and uncertain thoughts. "Hey, are you even listening? If you ask a question, don't zone out when we give you the answer!"

"Sorry," said Yosuke, shaking his head and forcing himself to snap back into reality. Maybe, he decided, all of this weird, artsy theater stuff was turning him into something strange after all. Last week, or even the week before, he'd never have wanted to know about all of this romantic, goopy crap. This kinda thing was Yu's department, and Yu was the one that the girls always went to with the sappy problems that required an amount of emotional patience that Yosuke had never bothered to try to learn.

But then again, said the treacherous, tiny part of the back of Yosuke's mind, that sensitive side of Yu was what made him so attractive to girls in the first place. Maybe that was where Yosuke was going wrong. Maybe if he could just tap into that more emotional part of himself, he'd start getting more girls. After all, didn't the ladies like that sort of thing? He'd never been able to figure out why, but it sure did seem to be the case.

Yumi, he thought, apparently did like that sort of thing. As soon as the thought crossed his mind, he bit his lip, wondering why he was bringing her into this, again.

"You look tired, "remarked Yukiko, sounding worried. "Have you been working too hard? If you spend all of your time studying for the play, you'll never be able to perform when the time comes. You should gets some rest."

"Yeah," agreed Yosuke. "Yeah, that's…that's not a bad idea. Maybe you're right. I sure haven't been feeling quite like myself lately…"


	7. Scene Seven

**Author's Note: **Oh dear, I seem to have gone over my seven day time limit. I'm sorry, finals and the opening of my spring show have taken their toll on my productivity. Fear not! I have been actively re-plotting and re-working some character motivations in both **Piecekeeping** and **Messiah**, and will be uploading new chapters for both of those stories after this weekend is over. Just give me a few more days to slack off of the harder stories while I try to cram for my finals, and then I promise I will go back to updating. You've been very patient, and I appreciate it more than I can say. Thank you!

**Scene Seven**

"So," began Yosuke, as he and Yu walked over to the rehearsal classroom for drama club after school. "Um…Yumi, right? She's really something."

Yu gave Yosuke the sort of shrewdly dubious look that only a real best friend can give. "Yeah, I think so," he agreed. "Why?

"Why what?" asked Yosuke, trying to keep the nonchalant smile planted on his face.

"Why," repeated Yu, "are we talking about Yumi?"

"Huh? Oh, that!" Yosuke could feel the sweat drops already beginning to collect on the back of his neck. "Hey, it's nothing, I just heard this rumor from Chie and Yukiko that maybe you two had been a thing last year, and I figured that if you had, you'd probably have told me, right, partner? I mean, it's not like we talk about that stuff, but you wouldn't hide it either, so…you know, I was just asking."

They walked along in silence for a few moments, with Yosuke feeling more and more awkward by the second as Yu continued to say nothing. That could only, thought Yosuke, be a bad sign. That could only be a sign that he was thinking about it, and Yosuke hadn't wanted this to be that kind of a conversation.

"Do you like her?" asked Yu.

Yosuke stopped so abruptly that Yu got a few paces ahead of him before he realized that he'd have to backtrack.

"Wait, wh-what?" stammered Yosuke. "No! No, it's nothing like that! I mean…"

"You mean what?" insisted Yu. "It wouldn't be a bad thing. Honestly, I'd be glad if you did. Maybe it's time for you to start dating again. After all, high school will be over soon, and then we'll never get these chances back."

Yosuke frowned. "That is so not the point," he muttered.

Yu just shrugged, leaving Yosuke's head spinning as they entered the rehearsal classroom together. He didn't like Yumi. Well, of course, he thought, he liked her. She was a pretty cool person, once you spent some time watching the way she worked. He admired her, sure, and he thought she was very talented, but "like" was a very strong word…or at least, it was strong in the sense that Yu was using it. "Like" involved feelings, and Yosuke didn't have any feelings about Yumi. There was no way, he decided. He barely even knew the girl!

But, said the little, treacherous voice in the back of his mind, he'd like to get to know her better, and that, of course, no matter how much he denied it to himself, was exactly the reason that he wanted to know whether or not he was going to have to go through his best friend to get to her.

"Ugh," muttered Yosuke.

Yu gave him a comforting little pat on the shoulder. "Don't worry," he assured him. "I'll back you up."

"But," began Yosuke, "That won't work. Yumi likes-!"

Before he could finish his sentence, however, they stepped into the rehearsal classroom, and were greeted with an unexpected sight.

Actually, it was more what Yosuke didn't see that bothered him. The classroom, normally full of eager dramatic wannabes at this time of day, was almost completely empty, except for the hunched figure of Yumi Ozawa, who was sitting in a chair in the corner, with her face buried in her hands. Her shoulders were shaking, and Yosuke exchanged a horrified look with Yu, as they both realized that the usually fierce and forthright drama club president was sobbing herself silly.

"Whoa," mumbled Yosuke, "Um…hey, are you...? What's up?" He expected Yu to go rushing over to Yumi's side, to give her that listening ear that was so famous around the halls of Yasogami High. Yu was always the one that everyone ran to for advice or a shoulder to cry on. This was exactly the kind of situation that Yu would know how to solve.

"Go on," muttered Yu.

Yosuke blinked. "Go …where?"

Yu gestured impatiently at Yumi. It took a moment before Yosuke realized that Yu was trying to get him to take the lead on this one.

"Uh," began Yosuke.

Yu gave him an exasperated look.

Clearing his throat, Yosuke took a deep breath, and then a few steps forward. "Hey, Yumi," he began, his voice sounding awkward and stilted in his own ears. "What's wrong?"

Sniffling audibly, Yumi wiped a hand across her eyes, and then looked up into Yosuke's terrified face. "I'm fine," she insisted, as the tears continued to squeeze themselves out of her eyes. "Don't worry about it. Just…just leave me alone."

Okay, thought Yosuke, and he turned around again, only to find Yu glaring at him with a sort of don't-you-dare expression on his face. Yosuke sighed.

"Come on," he insisted. "Tell me what's going on. It's not nothing. You're crying, and-!"

"I am _not_ crying!" sobbed Yumi. Yosuke wasn't sure if she knew how ridiculous that had sounded. Apparently she did, because the sobs suddenly redoubled, until her whole body was shaking. Carefully and very gently, half expecting her to slap him as soon as he tried it, Yosuke sat down beside her and put an arm around her shoulders.

"Take a deep breath," he said.

Unexpectedly, Yumi listened. Breathing slowly in and then hesitantly out again, she nodded once, bit her lip, and then looked up into Yosuke's eyes with a slightly less panicky expression on her face.

"It's all over," she told him. "The play. It's over. We can't go on. I tried to tell them not to do it, but nobody would listen!"

"Yumi," murmured Yu, "Start at the beginning. Who did what? Why isn't the play going to go on?"

Yumi seemed to need a moment to collect her thoughts. Eventually, she began, "This morning, Haruka and Miu came up to me in homeroom. Apparently Haruka's family wants to take her on a vacation during the weekend of the play, and Haruka says she has to go. Miu doesn't want to be in the show if her best friend isn't doing it, so both of them told me they were dropping out. I tried to talk them out of it. I told them that they were breaking their commitment, and that they were letting everyone down, but girls that like never listen. They never cared about the play anyway, they just wanted a chance for everyone to see them on the stage! It was always some kind of popularity contest for those two." She swallowed hard, looking angry and frustrated, then continued to speak. "So, when we all got to rehearsal today, I told everyone that we were going to have to find some last-minute replacements for those two. I tried to make it sound like it wasn't a big deal, but before I had a chance to talk about options everyone started getting angry, and yelling about how three people had now dropped out of the show. Before I could do anything to stop them, Ryota and Sho had walked out, and then Hiroshi said that there was no point, that the show was over, and that they might as well all go and get some homework done, so he left too, and…"

She started to sniffle again, and Yu sighed. "So, everyone decided to leave the production," he finished for her.

Nodding around her tears, Yumi pounded one fist hard against her own knee. "It's not fair!" she shouted. "We put so much work into this! I mean, you two did, and I did, but…it wasn't just us. Everyone in the show has been putting so much work in. How can they all just leave? Doesn't it matter to them? Don't they care about all the effort they've already given? Why did they even want to do the play in first place, if it wasn't important enough for us all to follow through? Ugh, I hate fickle, stupid people! This was going to be such a wonderful play! We even had our own costumes this time…"

Yosuke could see in Yumi's eyes that she wasn't as sad or dejected as he'd originally thought. It wasn't sorrow that was prompting the tears; it was white-hot anger. She was furious at the way the plans were falling apart, and frustrated as hell that there was nothing she could do about it.

The trouble was, there was something really attractive about the flash in her eyes when she got angry. There was something in those eyes now that Yosuke recognized as the same passion he'd been fascinated by when he'd heard Yumi read Julia's lines to him for the first time. She was a woman on a mission, and watching her plans derail like this was driving her to distraction.

"Trust me, we'll figure something out,' Yu was saying, coming over to pat her hand reassuringly. "There has to be something we can do. Maybe we should only perform one or two scenes from the play, and spend some time working hard on those. There are a few scenes that only the three of us are in, so it's totally doable."

As Yu spoke comfortingly to Yumi, Yosuke's mind was racing. There was no way, he decided, that he was letting all of this go up in smoke. Weeks ago, even days ago he'd almost hoped for something like this to happen, so that he wouldn't have to embarrass himself on stage in front of so many of his peers. Now, though, for some reason, something was different. Something had changed. This play was really important to someone, and he hated the idea of her having to lose it. There was, he knew, probably only one way for them to get out of this mess, and it wasn't going to be pretty. Still, it was worth a try.

"Guys," said Yosuke. "I've got an idea."


	8. Scene Eight

**Author's Note: **I am waiting to hear back from one of my professors about the guidelines for a major assignment. I've been sitting at my computer while awaiting the information, which I really do need today, so while I'm here, I might as well update something, right?

Honestly, for the duration of finals/tech for my show, I'll be sporadically updating with whatever stories or chapters come into my head, in no logical way whatsoever. It's really just me taking breaks in between work/study sessions. After finals/tech is over, I will go back to my regularly scheduled **Messiah** and **Piecekeeping** daily-update schedule. Not today, though. Today, random updates to whatever. *scatterbrained mess*

**Scene Eight**

"Uh, wait, let me make sure I have this right," muttered Kanji, as Yosuke and the rest of the team sat around their favorite table in the Junes food court. "You want us to do what?"

For once, Yosuke couldn't blame him. Kanji was probably still daring to hope that he'd misunderstood what Yosuke and Yu were asking of him.

"We need actors for the school play," repeated Yu. "Most of the rest of the cast has dropped out, and Yumi, Yosuke and I are desperate."

"Look," interjected Yosuke. "I know it's a lot to ask, okay? But please. Seriously, you guys are our only hope, here!"

A dull murmur arose as the various members of the team began exchanging shocked commentary with one another.

"Wait, this is feeling awfully familiar," muttered Chie. "Isn't this sort of like what happened that one time, when Yosuke had us all learning to play instruments for Rise's big Junes show? Oh, man, I thought you said that wasn't ever gonna happen again!"

"Please," begged Yosuke. "I wouldn't ask if I didn't have to!"

Rise was the only one at the table who had a big smile on her face. "Well, I'm kind of excited about it!" she announced. "I mean, I know that I've been traveling a lot recently for work, but trying to climb my way back to the top means I'm mostly meant doing commercials, TV guest appearances and stuff like that. I still haven't gotten a chance to act in a real TV show, let alone in a play! This could be a lot of fun!"

"Yes!" agreed Teddie. "This is my chance to win the hearts of the new first year students! I've been waiting for something like this all my young life! Just wait till you see the dazzling Teddie in action…rawr!" His eyes were sparkling with so much enthusiasm that it was making Yosuke feel a bit sick.

"I can't act," muttered Yukiko, staring at the table with a glum look on her face.

"Well, neither can Yosuke," said Chie. "So, I mean, with him as the lead, how bad could this really end up looking for you, Yukiko?"

Yosuke wasn't' sure he appreciated that remark, even if it had been Chie's best attempt at encouraging her friend to participate. "Okay, maybe I can't act either," he said, "but I'm giving it a try, and I'd feel a lot better about the whole thing if you guys would do it with me. I mean, maybe this whole thing is actually for the best! Before, I had to act with all of this weird, artsy kids. Now, maybe I have the chance to do this stuff with my best friends! There's nothing we can't do if we do it together, right?"

The rest of the occupants of the table just stared at him. Yosuke realized that his attempt to rally the troops had probably come out sounding a little too clichéd.

"Nice try," murmured Yu.

"Well," said Rise, "you can count me in, anyway. What are the roles available?"

Yosuke had to pull out and consult his script. On the first page was a list of character names. "Okay," he said. "Um, it looks like there's…Julia's father, Julia's maid, Julia's brother…Romero's best friend, Romero's dad, and…uh, a guy playing a wall."

"Wait," said Naoto. "Do you mean to tell me that this play requires an individual to be on stage, portraying a wall? Would it not be easier simply to construct a wall?"

"Dude, I'm just reading what it says here," retorted Yosuke. "So? Who wants what?"

Rise hummed thoughtfully to herself for a moment. "I think I'll take Julia's maid," she said. "Servant parts are usually pretty funny, right? I'd love to do some comedy. They never let me do that as Risette."

Yosuke grabbed a pencil out of his pocket, and scribbled "Rise" next to the part of Julia's maid.

"Chie," continued Rise, "you should play Romero's friend. I'll just bet that part has a lot of stage-fighting in it, right, Yosuke?"

"It does," agreed Yu. "Actually, Romero's friend and I end up fighting each other twice during the show. He kills me, in the end."

Chie nodded slowly to herself. "And it's not like we've never sparred before," she said, "so that probably won't be too hard…" Suddenly, she grinned. "Woohoo! Okay, I'll do it. Uh, is stage fighting anything like real fighting?"

Yosuke put Chie's name down next to the role of Romero's best friend.

"Wait," interrupted Yukiko. "Hold on…are there any more parts for girls? I don't particularly want to play a boy…I'm no good at walking like one." She glanced down at her legs, which were so used to gliding across the floor the way she did in her Amagi Inn kimono that they'd gotten into the habit, and probably couldn't be easily forced into masculine striding.

"There's still the mother," Yosuke reminded her.

Yukiko frowned. "Does the mother have a lot of lines?"

Shaking his head, Yu reassured her." No. The mother's only in one scene, so you won't have to memorize too much."

"Oh, good." Looking relieved, Yukiko nodded once, with an n air of stoic determination permeating her whole being. "Very well, then. If you think it'll really help…"

"Oh, but what about Naoto?" interrupted Rise. "Now there aren't any female roles left for her!"

Naoto shook her head emphatically. "That…won't be a problem" she said. "I would prefer to portray a male, rather than a female. It is what I am accustomed to, after all. If I must, I'll take the role of Julia's brother."

"Teddie wants to play an evil person!" announced Teddie, craning his neck to see the script over Yosuke's shoulder. "Come on, what can I do? Is there anybody left for me?"

"The father's kind of a bad guy," said Yosuke. "I mean, he does sort of want to kill Romero, so I guess…"

"Ooh! Ooh! Pick me!" begged Teddie. "I'll be so bone-chilling I'll creep you right out of your seats!"

"Yeah," agreed Kanji. "You usually do."

"So, Kanji," said Yosuke, penciling in the final names before sliding the script back into his bag. "I guess that means you're playing the wall."

Kanji opened his mouth in surprise. "Wha-? Wait, I never agreed to that. Are we actually doing this? Hey, hold on a sec!"

As usual, nobody was paying him any attention. Eventually, he slumped back into his chair in defeat. "Why," he asked, "do I get the bad feeling that this is going to involve some kinda body paint?"

"Guys, you're lifesavers," said Yosuke. Honestly, he wasn't so sure about this. Even if he had convinced his friends to come along for the ride, he had no reason to believe that any of them, with the notable exception of Rise, would actually be able to act. Still, he kept picturing the look that would light up Yumi's face when he told her that he'd found a brand new cast for the show that she'd thought was already over. Nevermind the fact that she'd freak out when she heard that most of them had never been near a stage before, if you didn't count that concert they'd done.

"When's this damn show gonna happen, anyway?" asked Kanji, apparently having resigned himself to being a human-sized lump of plaster.

"Next week," said Yu.

Suddenly, everyone stopped talking. They were all too busy staring at Yu and Yosuke in incredulous disbelief.

"No way…" Yukiko looked horrified. "That's…that's impossible!"

"It's totally out of the question," agreed Chie.

"Aw, no it's not!" Rise was still in good spirits. "We got our concert ready even faster than that last year. Hey, Yosuke. Do you have copies of the script for us?"

Now it was Yu's turn to go into his backpack, from which he pulled out several hastily photo-copied and stapled documents. He began handing them around to the team members, all of whom started leafing through pages and comparing their lines.

"Ooh, Yu-senpai has a fun part!" noted Rise. "He's the real villain, huh? Come on, senpai, let's hear your evil laugh."

Everyone was watching Yu expectantly. Yosuke tried not to cringe, aware that they were all in for something of a disappointment, unless the situation had changed drastically since the last time they'd rehearsed.

Unexpectedly, a high-pitched, feminine cackle erupted into the air, sending little chills of terror down Yosuke's spine. He and everyone else stared over at Yukiko, who seemed, amazingly, to be the source of the sound.

"Like that, right?" she asked modestly. "Oh, was that too girly?"

Yosuke and Yu exchanged a look.

"Um, Yukiko," murmured Yu. "Can you…uh, show me how you did that?"


	9. Scene Nine

**Scene Nine**

Okay, thought Yosuke, as he watched the chaos that the rehearsal room had erupted into within the last forty or so minutes. So, maybe this hadn't been as good an idea as he'd originally thought.

The "play" or what was currently a lack thereof was in complete shambles. Chie, while practicing what she'd insisted was her "big fight" with Yu had punched a hole straight through the back wall, and probably would have knocked Yu's head right off if he hadn't managed to duck out of the way in time. While Chie babbled frantic apologies and tried to stuff the hole full of whatever was lying around, Yukiko stood next to her, and dissolved into a fit of uncontrollably useless high pitched laughter.

In another part of the room, Teddie and Naoto were standing on either side of Kanji's reluctant "wall," attempting to practice their lines together. Yosuke was frankly impressed by how easily the memorization seemed to come to Naoto, although he knew he shouldn't have been surprised. After all, she was kind of a thinking machine, and memorizing lines couldn't be that much harder than memorizing case files or relevant facts.

The trouble wasn't Naoto's memorization skills, or even Teddie's overdramatic bravado. The trouble, as Yosuke had known it would be, was Teddie's unfailing tendency to ad-lib his way through every second of the scene.

"But lo, what do I spy through yon high wall? Is it the face of sister Julia?" intoned Naoto, with unerring accuracy, if not quite enough dramatic flair. "Why yes, I think it-!"

"Hah!" announced Teddie, cutting her off in the midst of her line. "I'll have at them with my sword, and put an end to this lover's tryst once and for all! Mwahahahah!"

Naoto let out a curt little sight that was somehow patient and exasperated at the same time. "Teddie, that is not your line," she reminded him. "Your line is 'Where? I see them not.'"

"Aw, but that's boring…this play takes so long to get to the good part! When do I get to fight someone like Chie-chan, huh? Can't we make it just a little more interesting…I'm getting beary anxious with all this waiting around for my turn…"

At least, thought Yosuke, scanning the room for anything less embarrassing than Teddie's attempts to steal the spotlight, Rise was doing a good job. Well, she was being her bubbly, enthusiastic self, which was fun to watch in any situation. Still, it wasn't quite what the play was calling for.

"Rise-chan," insisted Chie, as Rise bounced up and down on the balls of cute little Risette feet, and smiled winningly at the empty audience, "Um, isn't this character supposed to be old? Like really old? Somehow, I just don't think you're doing it right...shouldn't you, like, hunch over, or hobble, or something?"

"No way!" insisted Rise. "Nobody wants to watch that, that's so depressing! I'm gonna give them something they can't tear their eyes away from!" She did a little pirouette on one heel, then dazzled the imaginary crowd with her cute little idol-esque wink. Chie frowned.

Yosuke was afraid to meet Yumi's eyes. He knew what she must be thinking, and how horrified she must feel, watching these amateurs destroying the play that she'd worked so hard and for so long to put together. All the enthusiasm in the world wasn't going to turn Yosuke's friends into a group of professional performers in the course of a week, and the more Yosuke watched, the more he realized that by inviting them all here, he had probably only made the situation worse.

Still, he was glad. They were rag-tag, loud, obnoxious, and all over the place, but they had shown up to do this just because he'd begged, and it made Yosuke feel warm and confident inside to know that he had the kind of friends that would pull through or him, no matter what. They were here for him, and they were doing their best, which was more than Yosuke should have even asked for. Watching their horribly disruptive antics, he felt himself swelling with pride. These were his people, and there was something disturbing about how happy that made him.

"Yosuke?" asked a voice from behind him. A hand laid itself gently on his arm, and he turned around to see Yumi watching him with a little smile playing across her face. "What are you thinking about?" she asked him. "You looked excited, all of a sudden."

Yosuke cleared his throat. "Oh, uh, it's nothing," he insisted, as they both listened to the sound of something crashing to the floor. Yosuke just hoped it wasn't something expensive. "So, um. How's it going? Do you want to run that one scene again? I can ask Rise-chan if she's ready to-!"

Yumi shook her head. "No," she told him. "It's fine. Not right now."

Yosuke's shoulders slumped, and he let out a little sigh. "Yeah, I know," he admitted. "Maybe they're not so great at this theater thing after all, but…look, they're trying really hard…uh, at least, I think they are. It may not be the best play you've ever done, or anything, but at least-!"

"Thank you," said Yumi quietly.

Yosuke blinked. "Uh…wait, what?" he asked.

"They're wonderful," she continued, smiling around at the various would-be actors wreaking havoc in her rehearsal room. "They're so into it…and they all came out here just because you asked them to. You have such great friends…and they must love you very much." Suddenly, her smile turned sad for a moment. "I guess I'm a little jealous. I've never had…anyone like that. It's nice to see the way they'll do anything for you. And…it means a lot that you'd share that with me. I didn't this play mattered that much to you, at the beginning, but…I guess I was wrong. I like that. You're exactly the guy that Yu said you were. You're dependable…it's hard to find people like that in the world. So…thank you."

The great Yumi Ozawa looked almost flustered for a moment, and Yosuke felt himself blushing as he realized that now might be the right time to tell her or show her something that would really impress her. He needed to be suave about this, and nonchalant. He needed to be really cool. There had to be some way to clinch it for Yumi that he was the guy she'd been hoping would come along to save the day Unfortunately, he didn't have any ideas off of the top of his head. The constant distractions taking place all around him certainly weren't helping.

Then, from out of the corner of his eye, Yosuke caught sight of Yu, in the process of majestically sweeping his cape over his right shoulder. Throwing back his head, Yu let out a magnificent, blood-curdling burst of laughter that silenced the entire room for a few stunned moments.

"Wow," muttered Yosuke." I guess working with Yukiko was exactly what he needed…funny, somehow I feel like I should have known that from the beginning."

Yosuke turned back to Yumi, to find that she watching Yu's performance with a strange, sort of nostalgic look on her face. A lump settled uncomfortably in Yosuke's stomach.

"Hey, Yumi-san," he began, trying to sound casual and knowing that it wasn't working. "When you were telling me the other day about that guy…you know, the guy that you said you, uh, fell in love with last year, um. Was that…?"

He jerked his head in Yu's direction, and Yumi slowly nodded.

"Yes," she said. "Of course. I thought you knew. Everyone else does."

"Oh," murmured Yosuke. "Yeah, well…of course. I mean, who wouldn't go for him, right? After all, he is my partner…I mean, pretty much no one knows better than me how cool he is." Yosuke meant every word he said, but the more he watched Yumi's eyes on Yu's face, the more and more uncomfortable he became. Sure, he knew what a fantastic catch his best friend was, and that made it all the worse. How the hell was he supposed to compete, and how could he even want to? After all, that wasn't the kind a thing a real partner would even be thinking about.

Unexpectedly, Yumi shrugged. "I guess so," she told him. "He's a nice guy, sure, but…really, that was a whole year ago. I don't think I'm the same person I was then. It's a nice memory, though. I guess memories are where are lot of those feelings come from, when I'm on the stage. In the end, though, we all go home to the here and now. Maybe that's why I like the theater so much. It gives us a chance to go back and relive the things that we've already let go of. There's nothing else that does that in quite the same way."

Yosuke wasn't quite sure he'd heard that right, and part of him was a little afraid to hope that he had. "Wait, so…does that mean you're over him? I mean, not that I care one way or another, it's just…"

"Of course," retorted Yumi. "It was probably just an artistic passion anyway. It wasn't serious, or anything, it was just…something to draw inspiration from."

Having delivered that nonsensical disclaimer, Yumi walked into the center of the room, and held up her arms to try and get everyone's attention.

"Excuse me!" she announced, loud enough to make even Teddie stop and listen for a second. "Okay, everybody, it's time to get started! Let's begin with a warm-up…I think we should do some breathing exercises. Ready? Okay, inhale….and exhale. Inhale…no not like that, Kanji-kun, you're already starting to turn blue. Come on, gently, in and out, with me."

Yosuke watched her leading the exercise, his mind spinning as he tried to make sense of everything Yumi had just said. Did all of this mean that he still had a chance? If so, then…what was he supposed to do next?


	10. Scene Ten

**Scene Ten**

The week went by for Yosuke in a frantic blur, until suddenly he found himself decked out in that horrible frilly "shirt" thing, standing on stage in the Yasogami High auditorium. His mouth had gone dry and the sweat had begun collecting on the back of his neck when he first heard the rumbling murmur of voices that he hadn't wanted to realize was an audience full of people. Over the past two years, Yosuke had grown to really like the town of Inaba, even if there wasn't much to do for a kid his age, other than solve murders and avenge fallen comrades. There was, however, one thing about Inaba that he only now realized how much he didn't like. Everyone in Inaba knew everybody else. That meant that probably everyone in the audience was a personal friend or acquaintance of Yosuke's,. If he screwed this up…hell, even if he didn't, they'd end up laughing at him, and he'd probably have to put up with derision from every quarter and in every walk of life until he either left Inaba for good, or mercifully died.

"Crap," mumbled Yosuke.

"Hey, Yosuke!" called Teddie excitedly, walking by wearing a huge brocade coat that had clearly been made for a much bulkier man. "Did you see all the people out there? We're going to be famous!" He actually sparkled with anticipation.

"Oh no," muttered Chie. "I think I'm gonna be sick…"

"No you're not," Yumi informed her, crossing through the backstage area. Yosuke tried not to stare at the way that same red dress made everything good about her body stand out and be noticed. "We've got a show to do, and you're all going to be great! This is the moment we've been practicing for, right? So, don't look so nervous! We've got this! You're all going to do a great job."

There was just a hint of emphasis on the word "great" in Yumi's voice, and the slightest indication that the actors didn't have a choice as to whether or not to meet Yumi's expectations. Still, thought Yosuke, it wasn't a bad pep talk, even if it was a little bit utilitarian.

"Okay," announced Yumi, through the nervous and excited murmurs of the newly theatrical investigation team. "Here we go. Places, everyone!"

Yosuke swallowed hard. He turned around, and caught Yu's eye. Yu winked at him.

"Go get 'em, partner," murmured Yu.

For some reason, that made Yosuke feel even worse…

The show began with a scene between Naoto and Teddie, a scene that, remarkably, seemed to go pretty well. Teddie managed to say all of his lines without stepping on too many of Naoto's, and Naoto delivered her speeches with the calmly disinterested attitude of someone who was used to the public spotlight. They got off stage, and then it was Yosuke and Yumi's turn to perform a scene.

"I'm going to suck at this," he whispered to her, as they took their places on a darkened stage.

"You better not," she warned him. Then, unexpectedly, she gave his hand a little squeeze in the dark, which picked up the pace of the pulse of Yosuke's heart, and almost made him forget his very first line.

The lights came up, and Yosuke found himself staring into the faces of an audience full of Inaba townspeople, all watching him with expectant looks on their faces. There were Kou and Daisuke, and, sure enough, the other guys from the soccer team. There was Ai Ebihara, looking haughty and as though she would be more amused if Yosuke fell off the stage than if he opened his mouth. There was Mr. Hosoi, and even Ms. Kashiwagi…

"Go on," whispered Yumi urgently.

Yosuke took a deep breath. His life was flashing before his eyes, and he was watching it go by in rapid motion, suddenly aware of all the mistakes he'd made in the past and how easy it would be to repeat them in the future.

"Uh," began Yosuke, his heart doing desperate somersaults. "Uh, I…"

There was a horrible, pregnant pause, full of people sneezing and shuffling their feet while all eyes remained on Yosuke.

"You can do it," Yumi assured him, under her breath. "Yosuke, I know you can."

Right, thought Yosuke. Right, this whole thing was supposed to be about not letting Yumi down, wasn't it? So, now would be a bad time to get cold feet. It would be a really bad time.

"It has been three nights now since last I slept. Oh is there nothing to color the monotony of my lonely days?" said Yosuke. Wow, he thought. That had actually been pretty close to the words that he'd been supposed to say. "Is there no true friend who can aid me in these moments of lassitude? No love destined to find me in the midst of my ennuie?"

Slowly, the words began to tumble off of Yosuke's tongue, haltingly and stilted, but still there. Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced over at Yumi, and saw her smiling with a radiance that was somehow for both the audience's benefit and his at the same time.

She drew herself up and held her head back, presenting the haughty and majestic stance of Julia, the wealthy heiress with all the admirers in the world.

Yosuke tried not to melt. She was beautiful. Scary, yes, and also artistic in a weird and uncomfortable way, but when she was in her element like this, she was drop-dead stunning.

"Trapped behind the walls of my father's house," she began, her clear tones echoing and resounding off of the slightly less daunting walls of the auditorium, "I await a brave prince to save me from the unhappy fate of a caged bird."

One of the soccer players let out a raucous cat-call that made all the others laugh. Yumi stopped to wait for the noise to die down.

Yosuke caught the eye of the cat-caller, and glared him balefully into submission.

The show, he thought, as he ran his eyes over the rest of the team, who had fallen silent under his accusing gaze, must go on.

After that, everything seemed to go by in a distracted, breathless blur. Rise and Yumi performed a scene together, in which Rise almost remembered to stay hunched over and low to the ground. She'd managed to pull off the old woman thing for most of the scene, when finally, probably due to an aching back and an impatience with the role that she'd thought would be fun to perform, Rise stood up, stretched herself, presented her bust to the audience, and sang out her final line in Risette's pop-music princess voice. Yosuke saw Yumi wince, but other than that, she pretended not to notice. He was amazed at her ability to stay in character.

Then Yu and Naoto were on stage together, plotting to reveal the lover's tryst between Julia and Romero, so that Yu's character could marry Julia himself. Yosuke held his breath while Naoto carefully and methodically hit each of her lines with word-perfect accuracy. Yu wasn't doing too badly himself, thought Yosuke with a touch of pride.

The moment arrived. Yu swept back the cape, with a look on his face of abject malicious glee. The atmosphere was so tense that Yosuke knew he could have cut it with a knife. That analogy made him think of food, which made him realize how hungry he was. His stomach made an uncomfortable growling noise which he desperately hoped neither the audience nor the actors had heard.

"And then," finished Yu, as even Naoto held her breath, "the beautiful Julia will be mine! Mwahahahahaha…hic!"

Backstage, Yosuke smacked his hand hard into his forehead. Seriously. Seriously?

"Oops," murmured Yumi. "The one true bane of an actor's existence…the hiccups. Can…somebody please go get a glass of water? Quickly!"


	11. Scene Eleven

**Author's Note: **I have been writing (mostly homework, some fanfic) since I got home at 4:00…my eyes are beginning to twitch. Did you know that eyes could do that? I didn't, but it's totally happening. I was so convinced that I'd finish chapter seven of **Plainclothes** tonight, too…ah, well. I suppose we'll have to settle for this. I'm sorry, guys, I'll get more done tomorrow. I hope.

**Scene Eleven**

Yosuke found himself perversely relieved that hiccups weren't contagious. Of all the things that he could possibly have been focusing on during this remarkably non-catastrophic production, the hiccups seemed to be a strange choice. Still, worrying about that kept him from having to worry too much about the final scene of the show.

The final scene, and the only scene that he and Yumi had never actually rehearsed, was a ridiculously melodramatic moment during which the two lovers, having entered into a suicide pact, shared a final kiss before plunging daggers through each other's hearts. Yosuke had been more concerned about the dagger part until Yumi had showed him the joke-shop daggers that they would be using. These daggers had retractable blades that would make it look as though Yosuke and Yumi were being stabbed, without doing any real damage. That had been a relief. Considering how serious Yumi seemed to be about this whole drama thing, Yosuke had almost been convinced that she would insist on real blood.

Now, though, as the moment was fast approaching, Yosuke was much more worried about the kiss. He'd been relieved that Yumi had insisted on not rehearsing that moment before the actual play. She'd told him some nonsense about how she wanted the scene to be "organic" and to "develop naturally" when they finally performed it, and he'd nodded and smiled and thanked his lucky stars that he wasn't going to have to pretend to kiss a girl in rehearsal, while a bunch of giggling actor types looked on.

Now, of course, he had to face the ugly truth. He would now have to pretend to kiss a girl in front of an entire auditorium full of eager Inaba onlookers, instead. He had, of course, looked up the right way to do it. All he would have to do would be to dip her backwards away from the audience at the right moment, so that his back was facing them. That way, as long as he leaned over and made it look convincing, no one would be able to see the fact that he and Yumi never actually kissed.

In a moment of incredible self sacrifice, Teddie had even offered to help Yosuke practice the fake kiss. Yosuke, of course, had refused, and had spent the next several hours trying to get the image of leaning romantically over Teddie as far out of his mind as he possibly could. Maybe if Yukiko or Rise had offered, but…

"Yosuke," murmured Yumi, touching his elbow and startling him out of some pleasant thoughts about the more attractive women in his life. "It's almost time."

Yosuke spun guiltily around, somehow feeling weird that he was thinking about Yukiko and Rise while Yumi was there in the room with him. That, of course, made no sense. It wasn't like he and Yumi were dating, or anything…

"Okay," he said, trying to sound more confident than he felt. "Well, here we go…it's showtime, right?"

He flashed her his most encouraging smile, and tried not to melt when she gave him one back. As the voices from the stage began to die down, Yosuke and Yumi walked out together to take their places.

"No hope remains!" lamented Yumi, throwing herself dramatically into Yosuke's waiting arms. His heart began to beat faster as she pressed against him in that incredible dress.

This is just acting, he thought, trying to force himself to understand that he and Yumi were both pretending, and that none of it meant anything. This was no time, he knew, to get excited, and this was no time to lose control of the situation.

"I love you so!" exclaimed Yumi.

Yosuke's heart did a double flip, something that he wasn't sure he'd ever felt it do before. It was uncomfortable and jarring, and he found himself staring at her with his eyes wide and his mouth partially open.

Yumi fell silent, and watched him with an expectant look in her eyes.

Oh, thought Yosuke, right. It was his cue.

"Uh, I…I love you desperately," he managed, although the word "love' came out a little fainter and more hesitantly than he'd intended. "Without you life holds nothing that I care for, and uh…I will follow you wherever fate may lead."

Forcing herself shakily back on to her own feet, Yumi reached into the belt of her dress, and pulled out the fake dagger with a dramatic jerk. All of a sudden, Yosuke froze.

He'd forgotten the dagger. His dagger was still on the props table backstage. How was he going to die, now?

"There is no other way, my love," whispered Yumi, her face turned away from him. "I shall court death, in hopes that I shall see your face again in worlds beyond."

Yumi moved. Yosuke, still frantically trying to figure out what he was going to do in order to kill himself effectively, wasn't paying close enough attention, and she was on him before he had time to react. As his mind raced through the steps of how to dip her, turn her, and perform the fake kiss, he slowly put his arms around her and started trying to execute the maneuver.

Yumi, however, seemed to have something else in mind. Before he even knew what was going on, she'd reached up with both arms, wrapped them around his neck, and pressed her lips to his, her eyes tightly closed and the fingers of one hand brushing lightly against the nape of his neck.

A series of extremely powerful and complicated feelings assaulted Yosuke's senses all at the very same time. Alarm bells sounded in his head as the shock of the contact left him numb for a moment. He totally forgot about the missing dagger, as his hands, of their own accord, began to wrap themselves around Yumi's lovely waist, and he felt himself almost subconsciously returning the kiss. Her lips were warm and soft against his, and the slightly increased pressure of her fingers against his skin was dizzying and exciting.

Then, she pulled away from him, and when their eyes met, he saw that he hadn't been the only one surprised by the barrage of unexpected emotions. Yumi's eyes were wide as she stared into his, and a still, silent, beautifully intimate moment passed between them even there, on a stage in front of so many gawking onlookers.

"Ah," whispered Yumi. Yosuke was a little bit impressed with himself. He'd actually made her forget one of her lines.

Then, with all the force of pent up frustration and exacerbated feelings, Yumi took the dagger and plunged it down hard into her chest.


	12. Curtain

**Curtain**

As Yumi sank slowly and gracefully to the ground, coughing her last pathetic cough before lying with her back to the audience in a semblance of death, Yosuke realized that this was hardly the time for him to start basking in the romantic moment. There was still the problem of the missing dagger, and Yosuke had to figure out how he was going to die.

Glancing just past Yumi's gently twitching corpse, Yosuke saw Kanji, decked out in a grey painted fabric rectangle, glaring his way through the meaty role of "The Wall."

Kanji must have sensed Yosuke's eyes on him, because he looked up and met Yosuke's gaze.

"Kanjii," hissed Yosuke, doing his best to sound as gallantly distraught as he could at the same time. "I don't have the dagger!"

Yosuke wasn't honestly sure what he had expected Kanji to do. Frankly, he probably hadn't been expected anything. He had just needed Kanji to be aware that the play was probably going to head off in a totally unexpected direction, as Yosuke tried to ad-lib his way out of a mess.

Unfortunately, Kanji was a really nice and helpful guy. "I got your back, senpai," he muttered far too loudly, sidling his way across the stage in Yosuke's direction.

"What?" hissed Yosuke. "Wait, what is that supposed to-? Ugh."

Kanji swung a fist and hit Yosuke right below the ribcage, which knocked the wind out of him and caused him to double over on the ground next to the fallen form of Yumi.

"Why?" rasped Yosuke helplessly, trying to suck the air back in while taking his mind off the pain in his gut. "Why would you do that?"

"Hey, you're dead now," explained Kanji. "See? Told you I had your back."

Yosuke groaned. Sprawling out on the ground, he threw one arm over Yumi's chest in a dramatic, defeated portrayal of death.

Yumi didn't move…but Yosuke had to wonder if, right now, she didn't wish that she was really dead. Seriously…that guy. This was so embarrassing.

At some point, the play was over. Yosuke managed to muddle his way through lying still long enough for the rest of the team to stammer out their lines. When he stood up again, he was greeted with something both amazing and extremely unexpected. The audience burst into enthusiastic applause.

Yumi's hand closed around his as she drew him forward into a bow, and when they came back up again, Yosuke tried to get a look at her face.

Well, he thought, at least she didn't look too furious…

It wasn't until almost twenty minutes later, when they were all back celebrating what might have been a successful show, that Yumi finally turned an accusing glare on Yosuke.

"You forgot the dagger!" she shouted. "How could you forget the dagger? It was the only prop that you had to carry in the entire show! The ending was completely ruined!"

"Well, uh," protested Yosuke. "Hey, the rest of the show was still pretty good, right?"

"No!" Yumi shook her head furiously. "A beginning is only as good as the ending it precedes! This was a catastrophe, a complete farce! It was all I could do not to start crying when Kanji-kun punched you like that. It totally changed the entire flow of the story, and the new one didn't make any sense! Why would Romero die from being punched by a wall? Why would a wall punch anyone? Ugh!"

Although Yosuke had to admit that Yumi had a point about the wall thing, his sense of self-righteous fairness wouldn't allow him to take all the blame. After all, he hadn't been the only one who'd pulled an unexpected move during the final scene.

"You kissed me," he reminded her.

Yumi stared at him. "Of course I did," she said. "It's in the script. You did read the whole script, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but…you _kissed_ me," he insisted stubbornly. "Like…for real. A real kiss. What was that all about?"

"It was about artistic authenticity," said Yumi, rolling her eyes. "What were you expecting me to do, just cover your mouth with my hand and kiss that?"

"But, like you didn't even warn me!" shouted Yosuke.

"Of course I didn't! I figure d you already knew!" countered Yumi. "Stop acting like such a child, okay? It's not a big deal; it was just a stage kiss! It's not like it meant anything."

Whatever retort Yosuke had waiting on his lips died away suddenly. She couldn't really think that, could she? After all, he thought, a kiss was a kiss, and, well…there was no way that physical intimacy like that could ever not be a big deal. Everyone in town had seen them do it, and besides…

Yosuke's mind went blank for a moment. Besides, said the treacherous little voice buried beneath the depths of his more willingly conscious thought, maybe Yosuke wanted it to mean something. Maybe it had meant something to him, and all the artistic license in the world wouldn't be able to erase that.

"You're wrong," Yosuke told her, surprised at how cool and collected his voice sounded in his own ears.

Yumi just blinked at him in surprise. "What?" she asked.

"I'm not an actor," he continued. "I don't get this pretending stuff, you know?" Yosuke was painfully aware that now that he'd started this, he'd probably have to go through with it. Swallowing what was left of his pride, her murmured. "Anyway, it was a big deal for me."

Now it was Yumi's turn to look embarrassed. She glanced back over her shoulder at the other members of the investigation team. As soon as they realized that she was watching, Rise, Chie and Yukiko started actively and desperately pretending that they hadn't been listening in. Yukiko even started whistling, although she wasn't very good at it, and it came out more like hoarse little bursts of air.

Yosuke sighed.

"Listen, Yumi," he began, taking her by the arm and pulling her away from the onlookers. "I…kinda hate theater. I do. It's scary, and embarrassing, and I don't get all the artsy crap about feelings and connections and motivations, and…all of that."

Yumi opened her mouth to say something, but Yosuke shook his head at her. "Hey, just hear me out, okay? What I'm saying is, I'm just not a theater kind of guy, and I never will be. But…for the last month or so, I've been having a really good time."

Yumi shut her mouth again, and stared at Yosuke with a look on her face that was torn between trepidation and excitement. Yosuke felt a lump swelling up in his throat, but he kept going anyway.

"You told me that there was a guy that used to make you excited about coming to rehearsal, right?" he reminded her. "We had this whole big awkward acting moment where you told me to think of the person that would make me want to do things that I wouldn't want to do otherwise. Well…I think, uh…I think maybe that's you, after all. I mean…you're the one that got me into this mess, right?"

He laughed, a little nervously, and hazarded a glance over his shoulder. Kanji and Teddie both gave him grins, and a pair of encouraging thumbs up. Yosuke winced.

"Yosuke," murmured Yumi.

"Um…what?" asked Yosuke.

"You're one of the worst actors I've ever met," Yumi informed him.

Yosuke wasn't sure he should feel heartbroken about that. Did that…actually count as a rejection?

"Well, uh, sorry," he mumbled. "It's not like I've got a lot of experience with this sort of thing."

"But," continued Yumi, "I think I like that about you. You're not fake. You're not pretending, and you're really sincere about everything. No, I'm sure. I like it a lot."

"So, uh," asked Yosuke. "Does that mean that you, uh…?"

By way of answer, Yumi placed both of her hands on his shoulders, and leaned up to kiss him full on the mouth. This was a very different kiss from the one they'd shared onstage. This kiss wasn't between Julia and Romero. This kiss came entirely from Yumi, the real Yumi, and it was full of all the eagerness and enthusiasm that Yumi's portrayal of Julia hadn't' been able to express on stage.

"Gooooo Yosuke!" shouted Teddie, as Yumi and Yosuke broke away from each other to share sheepishly at the ground.

When Yosuke looked back anxiously at Yu, he saw that his partner was grinning exuberantly all over his face.


End file.
